he humbler allies of the Honey bee. We shall,
in observing the habits and homes of the wild bees, gain a clearer
insight into the mysteries of the hive.

The great family of bees is divided into social and solitary species.
The social kinds live in nests composed of numerous cells in which the
young brood are reared. These cells vary in form from those which are
quite regularly hexagonal, like those of the Hive bee, to those which
are less regularly six-sided, as in the stingless bee of the tropics
(Melipona), until in the Humble bee the cells are isolated and
cylindrical in form.

Before speaking of the wild bees, let us briefly review the life of the
Honey bee. The queen bee having wintered over with many workers, lays
her eggs in the spring, first in the worker, and, at a later period, in
the drone-cells. Early in the summer the workers construct the large,
flask-shaped queen-cells, which are placed on the edge of the comb, and
in these the queen larvae are fed with rich and choice food. The old
queen deserts the nest, forming a new colony. The new-born queen takes
her marriage flight high in the air with a drone, and on her return
undertakes the management of the hive, and the duty of laying eggs. When
the supply of queens is exhausted, the workers destroy the drones. The
first brood of workers live about six weeks in summer, and then give way
to a new brood. The queens, according to Von Berlepsch, are known to
live five years, and during their whole life lay more than a million
eggs.

In the tropics, the Honey bee is replaced by the Meliponas and Trigonas.
They are minute, stingless bees, which store up honey and live in
colonies often of immense extent. The cells of Melipona are hexagonal,
nearly approaching in regularity those of the Hive bee, while the honey
cells are irregular, being much larger cavities, which hold about
one-half as much honey as a cell of the Humble bee. "Gardner, in his
travels, states that many species of Melipona build in the hollow trunks
of trees, others in banks; some suspend their nests from the branches of
trees, whilst one species constructs its nest of clay, it being of large
size." (F. Smith.)

In a nest of the coal-black Trigona (Trigona carbonaria), from eastern
Australia, Mr. F. Smith, of the British Museum, found from four hundred
to five hundred dead workers, but no females. The combs were arranged
precisely similar to those of the common wasp. The number of honey-pots
wh